More than 1,500 years have passed since the last blood - human or animal - was spilled in the Colosseum, but the massive building erected by the Flavian emperors has continued to play a role in history. This book tells the dramatic story of the Colosseum - from its bloody gladiatorial games and the sacrifice of early Christians to the dismantling of the arena and its final restoration. The book also recounts the story of Rome as viewed from the vantage point of the empire's most impressive...

King Louis XIV had many loves, but none as compelling as Versailles, the modest country estate he transformed into one of the world's most spectacular palaces. Here is the dramatic - and tragic - story of Versailles and the men and women who made it their home.

Leland Faust unmasks Wall Street’s unsavory tactics in powerful detail by giving readers a high-level view of how the financial services industry misleads them, overcharges them, and exposes them to needless risk. He documents the financial industry’s alluring come-ons, airbrushed risks, high-stakes gambling, half-truths, misleading statements, outlandish predictions, tricks to overcharge customers, bad deals, and outright fraud by the most prominent and renowned of Wall Street’s players.

The thrilling true story of the daring double agents who thwarted Hitler's spy machine in Britain and turned the tide of World War II.After the fall of France in the mid-1940s, Adolf Hitler faced a British Empire that refused to negotiate for peace. With total war looming, he ordered the Abwehr, Germany's defense and intelligence organization, to carry out Operation Lena—a program to place information-gathering spies within Britain.Quickly, a network of secr...

A Distinguished and Bestselling Historian and Army Veteran Revisits the Culture War that Raged around the Selection of Maya Lin's Design for the Vietnam MemorialA Rift in the Earth tells the remarkable story of the ferocious “art war” that raged between 1979 and 1984 over what kind of memorial should be built to honor the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. The story intertwines art, politics, historical memory, patriotism, racism, and a fascinating ...

This Independence Day edition of The World is Flat 3.0 includes an an exclusive preview of That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, on sale September 5th, 2011.A New Edition of the Phenomenal #1 Bestseller"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certai...

It was a ‘truceless war’ which Justinian’s ambassador had denounced against the cringing Theodahad when he heard of the murder of Amalasuntha. And in truth all the schemings and machinations of the Byzantine Court had been rewarded beyond their deservings by as fair and honorable an excuse for war as ever prince could allege. Lilybaeum and Gratiana, Sicilian forts and Hunnish deserters, had all faded into the background. The great Emperor now appeared upon the scene in his proper character...

Diocletian and Constantine were the greatest of the Late Roman emperors, and their era marks the climax of the legionary system.Under Constantine's successors the legions were reduced in size and increasingly sidelined in favour of new units of elite auxilia, but between AD 284 and 337 the legions reigned supreme. The legionaries defeated all-comers and spearheaded a stunning Roman revival that humbled the Persian Empire and reduced the mighty Goths and Sarmatians ...

A.H. Allcroft's A History of Sicily is one of the most comprehensive works on the ancient history of Sicily, making it a must read for anyone interested in antiquity.

The Latin version of the history of the Lombards, to be translated is only the preface and the other parts in Italianit is very short and if you have already done the history of the Lombards by Paolo Diacono you have already practically finished the job. From sales, they often go in pairs, those who buy the Latin version also take the other. Others take only the fully translated one.

In the past few decades there has been an explosion of interest in the period of late antiquity. Rather than being viewed within a paradigm of the fall of the Roman Empire, these centuries have come to be seen as a time of immense creativity and significance in western history. Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity places the history of the papacy in a broader context, by comparing Rome with other major sees to show how it differed from these, evaluating developments beyo...